Plot

Set in the austere post–World War II British world of rationing, Cyril dreams up an ode to an imaginary character named Merlin Mound who can provide anything one can wish. Merlin becomes real and grants his host's wishes; not by conjuring the items out of thin air, but depriving them from other people's ownership, which leads to trouble.

References

A Piece of Cake (EP)

A Piece of Cake is an EP released by the alternative rockbandCake in 1996. The EP/Sampler was released as a teaser to the then-upcoming album Fashion Nugget. For an unknown reason, "The Distance" is listed and pressed twice into the CD; once at the beginning, and once at the end.

Although a work of fiction, the novel purports to be as historically accurate as possible. Notable themes are the development of aerial warfaretactics, the Hawker Hurricane fighter, the British class system within its military, and the difficulty of training and integrating new pilots during wartime. The novel was controversial because it challenged the greatly inflated number of British claims of Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed during the Battle of Britain, and theorized that the air battle was "irrelevant" to the possibility of a Nazi invasion of Britain following the fall of France. Robinson defends his work by stating that the truth of "faults and deficiencies" only enhances admiration for the courage and resilience of RAF pilots.

Plot summary

September 1939, World War II is about to begin: The young, brash and inexperienced pilots of Hornet Squadron, a fighter unit of the British Royal Air Force's Fighter Command and equipped with Hawker Hurricane Mk. 1s, are not inclined to take the impending war very seriously. Squadron Leader Ramsey, who has been drilling his men hard, is eager to get into action. Returning from a practise flight, he inadvertently taxis his Hurricane into a slit-trench, upending the aircraft and, too impatient to wait for a ladder, falls from the cockpit and fatally breaks his neck.